Worst Case Scenario Processes

My security alarm went off at 3:30 am this morning. I sprang out of bed. My wife and I quickly grabbed our 4 sons and brought them into one room.

Our security company called us and officers were sent. Everyone was safe. We were calm, deliberate, and executed a plan we have talked about repeatedly before this event.

Luckily it was false alarm, and I am still glad we had a plan.

We didn’t get an alarm system because we expected something like this to happen. We just know what we are going to do if it does.

This is equally important in running a company, department, or team. While you have your ordinary work load and your goals taking up 99% of your time, you still need to take the time to access your risk and create an action plan for what you would do if the worst happened.

Very early on in my company, we had one customer who made up about 60% of our business. I knew this was a very vulnerable position to be in. They had the power to really mess us up if they ever pulled out. We worked hard to build our business around them and reduce our dependency on them. Then one day, they asked us to do something we were unwilling to do from an ethics standpoint, and the took all of our business away.

Had I not been prepared for this, I would have had to lay off some employees and scramble to stay above water. Instead we didn’t panic. My partner and I had a plan for this worst case scenario, and were were able to still post a quarter of quarter growth despite losing all of that revenue.

The point is, most of your time is going to be spent working on things that move you forward. You just have to make sure you assess your risk and know what moves you are going to make when you face a set back.

Don’t get caught waking up to a security alarm in the middle of the night wondering how you are going to make sure your family is safe and accounted for.